On “bad” movies
August 24, 2023It's no secret that I love the Fast and Furious movies. In fact, I'm a huge fan of a good Bad Movie (or TV show) in general. There are few things more fun for me than throwing on, say, Furious 7 with some friends and commentating while Vin Diesel jumps a car between two skyscrapers (twice).
But I've always had this issue, which is that some "bad movies" are just... bad. They're not entertaining to watch or commentate; they're just boring.
And I could never figure out what differentiated a Bad Movie from a plain old bad movie. I got baited most recently by The Meg, a Jason Statham-led action flick about a killer megalodon. It seemed like a perfect Bad Movie, but half of the group I was with had fallen asleep by the end. So when I saw that Meg 2: The Trench had received even worse reviews (27% on Rotten Tomatoes to the original's 46%),1 I wasn't particularly excited to go to the theater. To my surprise, it was incredibly fun. And in the process, I think I figured out what makes a Bad Movie good.
In the original Meg, the writers tried to make the script at least somewhat reasonable. So the majority of the movie is filled with kind-of-sensible ideas, like putting someone in a shark cage to try to spear the Meg or flying over it with helicopters to try to shoot it. At the movie's absolute craziest, Statham clings onto the side of a swimming Meg to stab it in the eye. The problem is, I already don't believe that Jason Statham is capable of taking down a megalodon in open water. So all that trying to make the stunts realistic does is show me the most boring version of a still-unrealistic stunt.
Towards the end of Meg 2, Statham uses a wave as a ramp to jump his jetski off of, then throws, midair, his homemade explosive spear into the Meg's eye. Now, I also don't believe Jason Statham is capable of doing this. But crucially, it's cool as hell. Even writing that sentence was fun. It's not just the climax of the movie. A minor plot point involves Statham (who just saw a side character get disintegrated by the pressure at the bottom of the titular trench) filling all of his cavities with water (which everyone knows prevents him from getting disintegrated) to trek across the ocean floor to an airlock while fighting off super-piranhas. Again, insane. Again, so much more fun than just shooting out of a helicopter.
To summarize, the key to a good Bad Movie is fun ideas. Trying to spear the Meg in a shark cage: not that fun. (Suspenseful, if it's a good movie like Jaws, but not fun.) Naming the soon-to-be-massacred tourist trap "Fun Island": fun. Action scenes are an easy example, but this principle applies equally to the ridiculous plot of Outer Banks and the over-the-top mystery and relationship drama of early seasons of Riverdale.2 If a movie or show is out of the realm of "good", the execution is already lacking, so the differentiating factor is the absurdity of the writers' imaginations.
Often a good way to tell a Bad Movie from a bad movie is to compare the audience score with the critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. A middling score for both (like The Meg) usually equates to boring; a terrible critic score and a middling audience score (like Meg 2) is likely fun. It's the difference between them that matters more than either individual score.